Other NBC-owned stations have or are planning to launch 4 p.m. newscasts this spring. In New York, WNBC has hired morning news anchor Stefan Holt away from sister station WMAQ to anchor its 4 p.m. newscast, set to begin in a few weeks. In Los Angeles, KNBC is set to return to the 4 p.m. news game for the first time since 2007.

WFLD is currently the only Fox-owned station (not including My Network TV affiliates) left not producing an early afternoon newscast. Coinciding with the arrival of new news director Matt Piacente, insiders say the new 5 p.m. newscasts are to be anchored by the current 9 p.m. anchorteam of Jeff Herndon and Dawn Hasbrouck. Earlier this year, WFLD added Saturday and Sunday morning newscasts.

The addition continues a trend of stations nationwide adding more local news to their programming schedules instead of syndicated shows. So far, only one new syndicated show is debuting this fall: Harry Connick Jr.s’, whose show has been picked up by WFLD this fall in an overall Fox O&O deal and could lead into the station’s 5 p.m. newscast.

The newscast expansion means some programming shuffles: Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution is expected to make a deal with WFLD to acquire celeb magazine show Extra from WMAQ to air in prime access (6-7 p.m.), likely being paired with Warner’s TMZ. Extra has been on WMAQ throughout its entire 22-year run, with the show airing in early fringe since 1996.

Extra remains on NBC’s seven other stations, including WNBC and KNBC. NBC was the launch group when Extra debuted in 1994. (NBC-owned WRC in Washington D.C. and KNSD in San Diego do not carry Extra.)

This latest round of news expansion has nothing to do with audience demand, as you’ve guessed given the complaints of repetitive news stories throughout the day. Instead, the demand is being driven by advertisers, notably from automotive and political – especially with one of the biggest elections in a generation coming up.